Below is a press release announcing an exhibit, "A Sure Defense: The Bowie Knife in America," which will be opening in December in Little Rock. This exhibit is being curated by myself and HAM Director Bill Worthen, and will feature knives from private collections and institutions across the country. This will be a rare opportunity for folks to learn about the Bowie knife and to see firsthand some of the rarest and most important Bowie knives in existence.
Note that this exhibit will be open during the weekend of the Arkansas Knifemakers Association's Arkansas Custom Knife Show in February, which is a superb show located just a few blocks away. As noted in the release, there will also be a grand opening celebration the weekend of Dec. 13th-14th.
Truly, a once in a lifetime opportunity for people to see these knives up close and personal. Please help us spread the word about this exhibit, and encourage others to come. If you like Bowie knives (and who doesn't?), you won't want to miss this.
If you have any questions, please post them...
Mark
The Largest and Most Important Bowie Knife Exhibit Ever Assembled to Open
More than 200 knives will be displayed December 13 to June 22
LITTLE ROCK (Sept. 9, 2013) – Historic Arkansas Museum is proud to present "A Sure Defense: The Bowie Knife in America" in the Horace C. Cabe Gallery, December 13, 2013, through June 22, 2014. There will be a free opening reception on December 13, 5 – 8 p.m., in conjunction with downtown Little Rock’s 2nd Friday Art Night and the museum’s eggnog competition, the 9th Ever Nog-off. There will be live music; and a surprise guest of bowie knife fame is planned. As part of 2nd Friday Art Night, a free shuttle is available to transport visitors to other Art Night venues. Shuttle service ends at 8:30 p.m. Admission to the gallery is free.
“This exhibit is the largest and most important ever done on America’s iconic contribution to the world of blades,†said Historic Arkansas Museum Director Bill Worthen. "A Sure Defense: The Bowie Knife in America" will trace the history of this country’s most famous knife from just before its birth in a rough melee on a sandbar above Natchez, Mississippi in 1827, to the skilled craftsmen who keep the classic blade alive to this day in the form of hand crafted reproductions and modernized versions.
Visitors to the public exhibit will have the opportunity to see knife designs associated with Alamo martyr James Bowie and his less famous brother Rezin, and to examine bowie knives once owned by such historic figures as Davy Crockett, Theodore Roosevelt, General Winfield Scott and John Fox “Bowie Knifeâ€â€ˆPotter. The role of the bowie knife in the Antebellum era is explored along with the Civil War and the opening of the west, and there’s a special focus on the role bowie knives played in the events surrounding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
Among the 19th century knives featured will be those attributed to Arkansas’s own James Black, known knifemakers to the Bowie brothers Henry Schively and Daniel Searles, master silversmith of Texas and Tennessee Samuel Bell, and the highly skilled makers of the California school including Michael Price and Will & Finck. Fine English Bowies are also well represented with knives by such makers as Samuel Wragg, W. & S. Butcher, J. Walters and Charles Congreve; as are some of the finest known Northern and Southern blades from the Civil War. Visitors can also expect to see a superb group of folding bowie knives, and a variety of other knives that served as backup weapons during the Bowie knife era, such as push daggers and dirk knives.
In total, more than 200 knives are included in the exhibit. A full color catalog documenting this historic exhibit is planned, and will be available from the museum’s gift shop and online store.
Historic Arkansas Museum is open 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 1 - 5 p.m. on Sunday. Admission to the galleries and parking are free; tours of historic grounds are $2.50 for adults, $1 for children under 18, $1.50 for senior citizens. The Historic Arkansas Museum Store is open 10 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 1 - 4 p.m. on Sunday.
Historic Arkansas Museum is an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage, which was created in 1975 to preserve and enhance the heritage of the state of Arkansas. Other agencies of the department are Delta Cultural Center in Helena, Arkansas Arts Council, Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, Mosaic Templars Cultural Center and Old State House Museum.
Folks, if you have seen the book "The Antique Bowie Knife Book" by Adams, Voyles, and Moss or the Book "The Bowie Knife, Unsheathing the Legend" by Norm Flayderman, you will not want to miss seeing this exhibit. Many of the knives featured within those books will be here for you to see in the flesh.
As makers we can get a sense of the sizes and proportions of some of the famous knives that we might want to emulate. It will indeed be a rare opportunity to gather detailed research information for future projects plus will offer some historical background on the makers of these fine knives.
That's something that I will definitely put on my calendar. Thanks for the heads-up.
Gary
Mark,
This is great!! Thanks for letting us know about it.
Will the catalog have photos of all of these knives?
Hi all--
Lin is right, there are some very famous knives that will be a part of this exhibit. On the flip side, there will be a lot of important knives that have never been published before. Some more examples... the Wostenholm/Washington Exhibition bowie (at one time the most expensive knife ever sold), the very finest 'improved' Schively bowie in existence, the largest group of guardless coffins ever assembled in one place at one time (at least since they were made -- I think about 10 of them), dogbones, Hubers, and hopefully the Searles/Fowler knife from the Alamo, 8 Samuel Bells, I believe 10 California knives, almost 20 folding bowies and dirks. One Congreve has been in all 4 Abels books, the Chevalier/Forrest presentation knife from the Antique Bowie Book and at least one Abels book, Bowie #1 of course and the Berkley Bowie / Henry Huber knife... I could go on and on. It's not just a grouping of the very best knives -- we're trying to tell the history of the bowie knife, not just say 'look at these, ain't they 'purty' -- but some of the very finest knives will be there.
As for the catalog, I'm actually flying to Little Rock tonight to help Buddy Thomason shoot the knives. Yes, everything will be photographed and we'll present them in the best way possible. A 300 page book is probably out of the question so we may be a little limited space-wise, but we have enough funding to publish a thoroughly professional catalog with some of the best photography that's ever been done on antique bowies. We are going to start a little fund for donations to help pull this publication off (tax deductible), if you are interested please contact me.
Mark
Attached -- recent clipping from the Arkansas Gazette. We are working hard to generate a lot of press for this exhibit -- my big motivation is to publicize knives as interesting, collectible, historic, artistic objects, and to try to reach as many people as possible. This will be a good thing for all of us.
I am definitely going to try to make the opening night reception Mark. Sounds like a great exhibit and I am looking forward to it. Is the Flournoy bowie from Flaydermans book going to be there? Something about that knife really gets me.
Brion
Brion Tomberlin
Anvil Top Custom Knives
ABS Mastersmith
|quoted:
I am definitely going to try to make the opening night reception Mark. Sounds like a great exhibit and I am looking forward to it. Is the Flournoy bowie from Flaydermans book going to be there? Something about that knife really gets me.
Brion
Hi Brion.... no, that knife will not be there. I saw it in person not long ago and we should talk about that knife before you go about reproducing it (If you're so inclined).
Mark
Yes I am inclined, and yes we need to talk about it. I saw it when it was at the Cowboy Hall of Fame, excuse me Western Heritage Museum. See you in December. Thanks Mark.
Brion
Brion Tomberlin
Anvil Top Custom Knives
ABS Mastersmith
I am really looking forward to this exhibit. As it is, I have enjoyed the ABS Hall of Fame/Knife Gallery at the museum many times. With the addition of this exhibit it will really be a knife lovers destination.
Hey Allen, you're going to love this. I'm seeing most of the knives together for the first time this weekend and there is some super cool stuff here. We can't cover every single type of bowie knife, but we've made a real effort to pull together a lot of variety among bowies, to include the folding bowies/dirks and fixed blade dirks that are a part of the story but are so often neglected, to address the knives that came just before and after the bowie knife era, and to acknowledge the revival of interest in the bowie knife that began in the 1940s and continues today. There are also a number of knives tied to famous historical figures or events which (I think) really adds to the appeal of this exhibit.
The museum staff is excited about it too, and is working really hard to make this exhibit the best it can be. Everyone who's visited the museum has seen how attractive and professional their exhibits are -- I may be biased (just a bit) but I believe that this will be one of the best exhibits they've had in recent memory. Expect to be impressed!
Mark
Mark and I had a wonderful time shooting all the knives and I got a lot of education from Mark about the world of antique Bowie (era) knives.
Photographs are no substitute for the real knives, so don't miss the exhibit. With that in mind, see them ALL here: http://www.fototime.com/inv/ED8318BB823B481
Mark,
I'm excited about getting a chance to see this type of collection together at one time. Will you be in the museum at any time on Friday before the Arkansas Show to talk about them?
Gary
|quoted:
Mark,
I'm excited about getting a chance to see this type of collection together at one time. Will you be in the museum at any time on Friday before the Arkansas Show to talk about them?
Gary
Hi Gary,
Nothing is set in stone just yet, but there will definitely be some special museum activities that weekend for all of the knife people coming in to see the show. We have talked about keeping the museum open late one night, and maybe we could do something like a guided tour, a roundtable discussion, or ???. Anyone with an idea of this sort, please send me an email or PM me -- I think we're going to start finalizing this sort of thing soon.
Mark Z
